Here, Nobody Speaks of the Wounds

Muhammad Iqbal Shah's 14-year-old cousin was gang-raped and murdered at Handwara town, Kupwara, in 2007. The family is still trudging along the long road to justice

- Naseer Ganai

THE trudge to the desolate apple orchard wasn’t easy for Muhammad Iqbal Shah. After 17 years of awaiting justice, Muhammad was returning to the crime scene in the Batapora highlands of Handwara, around 100 km north of Srinagar, where his 14-year-old cousin was stripped and gang-raped by four men in 2007, who then slit her throat and left her to die.

Along the trek, Muhammad, a physics teacher in a government school, struggles to maintain his composure. His voice breaks and tears stream down his face as he points to the exact spot where her bag was later found all those years ago. He is even more overwhelmed when he reaches the exact spot, where her remains were found 17 years ago, clumsily hidden under grass heaps.

The long road to justice for Muhammad and the Shah clan has several judicial pit stops. He is currently at the second one.

The four accused persons, Sadiq Mir, Azhar Mir, Jahangir Bihari and Suresh Mochi, were sentenced to death by the Sessions Court in 2015, which classified the crime as one that fits the “rarest of rare” billing. The killers have since appealed to the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir, seeking remission of the death penalty.

J&K’s additional advocate general, Mubeen Wani, told Outlook that the case dragged on before the High Court’s divisional bench due to the Covid pandemic, but is now reserved for judgement after daily hearings. “For the past month, the Court has been hearing the case on a daily basis and we expect the Sessions Court’s judgement to be upheld,” he said, emphasising the need for the death penalty in light of recent tragedies, including the recent rape and murder case in a leading hospital in Kolkata.